BTG 30 - Marcos Avellan

[Music] hey guys what's going on David I have on here with Robert Drysdale and our special guest for all the way from Miami Marco Sava I'm my brother of course welcome to breaking the guard how are you doing doing great they doing great thanks a lot for you Rob having me on here a special admission a social distancing version even me Robert it's scary it sucks it's like day one like the curfew in Nevada started today at noon and I'm already bored out of my mind I'm like for my eye I just posted something on Instagram about having my students come to the park tomorrow to work out so we're gonna meet at 5:00 p.m. at the park by the gym to do like some exercises and some visualization throw some punches in the air that's what we can do we can we're not gonna you know we're gonna respect social distancing but I gotta keep people active and I I miss teaching and I miss being around my students so I just can't be too too close to them that's it but we're gonna we're gonna throw a class in the park tomorrow yeah man it's it's pretty wild man we got shut down as well obviously and and it's for us with a huge culture shock because like our gyms open 24 hours 7 days a week like literally of 24 hours is one of the few 24-hour gym so we've been running like that man I want to see like maybe a dozen years or so and so like people were never close like like even when it's New Years Eve and stuff we'll have like we'll have one practice that day you know well put all the cost into one session you know like the gyms never truly closed and right now and we closed down there was people that were shook like we had like students saying like wow like this thing didn't hit me until FFA closed down you know so like I I it's very weird it's very weird night to be running fighter training or anything you know and and uh it's just it's just unreal experience man like doing we're doing online classes now like a lot of schools are doing but we're making the best of a really bad situation but it's wow speechless to be honest yeah I didn't expect that we would be in this situation remember I thought you know some people would be weary you know like I said I'd like the endangered populations elderly and immune compromised or people with pre-existing conditions I didn't think it was gonna be a total shutdown let alone that at least Las Vegas I heard 30 days shut it down and Robbie over saying down they up to 60 yeah 30 days in law in Nevada it's no small businesses operated on what's it's like a an essential business like pharmacy or something like that restaurants are only allowed to operate if you pick up you can't eat at the restaurant right only for pickup yeah so they you know they found a way around that they should be okay but like we're in the industry the most difficult industry positive issue especially with grappling like I compared Grassley to like having someone with coronavirus sneeze in your face every 30 seconds for an hour straight that's that's probably for you you know there's bodily fluids going everywhere excited about the prospects of the next month or two and that's assuming that things normalize after 30 days which I think that there's you know a chance that they won't what I try to do is I try to make something good out of every bad situation right like I always try to have a good positive out like an be negative at times but I try to spin things in a way that how is this gonna work in my favor I think that to come back when it does come back is gonna be every person wasn't even common it wasn't even like though it's thinking about coming to the gym the day that we're back in business and everyone's the government's like you're safe to go back it's gonna be like like a flood of people running to the gym and they're gonna like I just want to sign up and I think the signups should be even higher here then they were how do we not had a coronavirus crisis right I don't know I think I think there's a definitely gonna be like a like a cabin fever kind of element going on where the second people get out it but no like if people are feeling feverish right now I don't know how I guess people have their own way of grieving but like I mean snacks like crazy enough so like it's like most people are gonna go through you know two things one weight gain and two lack of activity and and and and that cabin fever kind of thing so yeah I think people want to go and sign up for things but I do think that all the the gym owners should start now with their online course and stuff because right now there's no alternative you know like like and you want people already you know connected to you and familiar with you right now so when they do get out of there like kind of metaphorical prison they'll be coming straight to you you know that's that's what I'm hoping for that the online world will will help people stay in the game mentally with their training because man nothing's worse than just breaking away from your routine like two weeks is devastating to routine you know especially what happens to when you're training everyday you get you're used to getting the endorphins right and the endorphins are like any chemical that goes through your body becomes addicted any chemical the good ones the bad ones you know one thing you the poisonous one like everything becomes addicting and you know you get the high of like finishing a workout and people are missing that now right so people are used to working out once or even twice a day they're like going through cold turkey right now like I guarantee you they're like kids doing like push-ups in the living room and know no amount of like you know watching videos on YouTube instruction or online training is gonna fill that void what it will do is gonna keep your mind busy you're still involved and you know and whatever March water into work but you know II see what I'm doing little different I think you I think it's it's it's not the same at all ever it's been the same what it today was pretty cool I used what we're using now soon and what I did was I haven't I haven't gone to the grappling realm yet make additional workout but with a striking I had everybody doing like a shower box booty gonna whistle to the gear in class make people do sprawls and stuff and one student had like one I mean not that they're reliable but one student had one of those watches or the calories I burn 453 calories you know so the point is that they got a sweat out of it yeah I think I think it's possible but it's not gonna be the same you know it's not gonna be same I mean I mean it's but at the same time it's as good as gonna get considering they're locked in solitude you know so what I decided to do was like I don't know if you guys saw my post earlier today I mean I just post like an hour ago I invited all my students their friends were sending an email blast all of our students inviting everyone to come at Davis Park David knows Davis Park it's right next to my house in the gym and it's a huge park right so you can easily fit a hundred people you even have like eight feet distance between them and we're gonna do like some striking like some shadow boxing like you're talking about throw some punches some nice we'll do some visualization I've always liked to visualize a lot of people don't have the habit if they want that but like I think that is that was always my drill I never liked the drill like you know as I'm like repetition number it's a repetition I thought was boring it just it wasn't fun to me but I would drill a lot in my head and there's a lot of evidence that shows that if you can see yourself going through the motions and you that becomes the part of your like your nervous system can like you know can read that motion and as if you were actually doing it right yeah sorry no 100% yeah and then you know I want to run them some visualization drills and then some exercise will do some push-ups um some some balance exercises like there's a ton of way of working out with your bodyweight so so many different ways we can you know we can spin this and keep our students engaged but it's you know it's not to say you know all they people want to catch it it's you know how we tell people that when you train for a fight like sparring it's never gonna be exactly like a fight but you're gonna get as close as you can to a fight right this online training it's gonna get pretty if you do a good you can get pretty darn close to actual training but snowing to be actual you know physical face-to-face training but considering the circumstances it's good enough you know it's gonna get better than them watching like it's true you said you watch YouTube it's not interactive see like I found that the people today we're working out sometimes Believe It or Not harder than in the gym because they weren't sure about looking at them randomly calling out people and they're like oh crap he's looking at me you know and they don't know what Big Brother's watching right but when you're the gym you walk away for a second they can kind of kick it's like a little bit right so what you were saying about about the visualization of 100% everyone it was to what I was telling everyone today because I to start this online circus online course it's movie it's gonna be mostly striking it's just inevitable I'm gonna try to do a grappling course on Tuesday and Thursday crop the class a night or anybody find a neighbor or find a spouse you know find somebody that you can partner up with but mainly it's gonna be just drilling positions and moves because of their partisan experience they're not able to get that you know action going but for the striking I told him look if someone told you right now that you're they want easier never fought before and your first fight against a guy with 60 fights what do you think and everyone's gonna have a little bit of a [ __ ] when they hear that whoa 60 fights right yeah but I didn't tell you the guys record well just knowing that he has that experience of 60 fights it means something and what is that when you think about it when you try to quantify all of these memories all these memories like right now you know you have X modified I have X amount of fights but this very moment what is this is a memory so if you are able to have an active enough imagination when you're shadowboxing you can try as close as possible to mimicking those memories and make a lot more games in your in your in your training it's never gonna be the same memories an actual fight no one's saying that but you can get a lot more juice out of that of that fruit of your shadow boxing if you could really gain Majan if I try to tell people picture the height of your opponent his hairstyle the skin complexion how his hands are is he breathing hard or easy relax is you know he like a blue tie looking fighters you try and go for a takedowns we try and stay away from you and men strike and research shoutbox you really get that visual going you know one thing I don't like and it's just it's the mainstream is you see guys shout boxing on one set of ass beating you know like they're walking around just throwing these huge combos you know never slipping a punch never block I can never lead you back and to me is because I'm not using an imagination because there's no fight you and I fight a dude it's just gonna sit there and let you swing all over them and you know that's a that one thing I heard I never when I was in Cuba I was boxing there in some of the Olympic coach there and one of the things he said and said that the majority their combinations when you're shadowboxing should be one two and maybe three punch combinations exact words were five and six punch combinations are fantasy you know and it's not that they don't happen but they're a finishing sequence right like the majority of your combinations especially it makes more shorts or the punches have a lot more meeting there to three-punch combo so not only that I just don't reinforce what he just said I been more involved in him and made coaching now than I've ever been before we're starting to mate seen that's part of the reason why we're open another gym and so and I'm a huge believer in one two and one two or three right because anything that if you're throwing a five punch combo that means your feet on the same place for a long time that's what that means in an MMA that's deadly so anime is a lot more fast-paced it's a lot more to meet and then maintenance closer to point karate than it is to boxing and what I mean by that is those small gloves you don't have to get people super hard to knock someone out there's a lot of power that's gonna come from those little tiny little gloves and plus blocky becomes a dip that if you think with small gloves right so the distancing and the footwork become bigger elements like that's your number one these days this defense is to be in good position with good a head movement following up with like short combo so you can get out of the way in case you miss and your opponents firing back right so a hundred percent I agree on that and these are all things that we can reinforce you know through videos or in a park or we don't have to be in a gym to to reinforce these things so I guess like once again looking at these things that positive wait what we should be doing as instructors it's like reinforcing things that we could do in the gym but we end up not doing because I'm just gonna go want to go at it with one another right you know it's a great point man it's a great point cuz like like a lot of I'm not saying everybody but a lot of instructors they'd spent almost no time on the psychology part of training the psychology part fighting because you know no one's to sit and kind of lecture the whole time people have an expectation of coming in and grappling or harp in bags or sparring but now we kind of like run out of options here when you're like it gets harder and harder to keep just like grappling in your house and less you know your sibling is a is a color belt grappler you don't go do that but there's so much gains you know III think about this is my students all the time I always think of that quote from from the basketball coach John Woo where he says always think of the things focus on the things you can do and none of the things you can't do so like if you're injured people think oh I'm injured yeah wait would you hurt your hand well can you kick you know like like so like in this situation can we go to the gym no and some of us are in total lockdown like San Francisco they came in gather house right so like it came to go to part well what can you do let's say their internet goes out you'll have Internet can you read about martial arts I mean like what can you do like at this point you just got to think about the things you can do and focus on that and it gets harder to do that because I think people in general just have a negative mindset it's not it's not it's not like I'm knocking people it's just the way we're designed like it's somebody you know hits your car and takes off on you hits and runs you you're much more likely to tell people about that taught the course of the day then if somebody you know hey dropped your wallet give you your wallet you know you probably tell a couple people but small wrongs you it's just much more like powerful in your mind it's like a review thing people are more likely to leave negative review like to run to the computer leave a negative you you and run to the computer leave a positive review and I think that uh that that right now people are gonna be more during their eyes gonna be noticing more the bad circumstances what's going on right now about things they can't do I can't train I can't do this I can't do that they're not looking at hey you know I got more time to read up now on martial-arts velocity college I got more time to study fights I got more tents studied these these these uh instructional videos I've always wanted to get around doing maybe I can sign up for a class now with one of these black boats are giving away you know free online training right now like there's a lot of opportunity in this disaster I'm not saying that's like you know goldmine opportunity but there is opportunity and good me to stay focus on that opportunity here you know in every big catastrophe like you said the rich are getting richer right yes that they're able to find like you joke big poop is making big money right about the starving my Facebook feed is full bday that's where you guys were both which is like the thing that you guys that people could be benefiting from right now is from the mental training nobody likes to do it everybody shines away from it everybody rather just bar and roll or do techniques but what we all know what separates a champion from the average guy is not like this guy knows three different ways of facial Matata it's his willpower you know and like a conviction that he has to win and that can be developed you know through visualizations like Robert was talking about me and my brother had been all about that early and and we would write or you know journals like a little story of what our visualization would be like and then narrated play it back on audio as we're going to sleep or meditating to really reinforce it so these are things that could be happening now and as you're saying Robert it has been proven to be a very effective towards stimulating your nervous system so that it feels like it I know for myself when I do a vivid visualization my heart rate was jumping I'll feel my chest and that's your body saying this is actually happening and I'm getting excited and you know getting my mouth my body ready to fight so if you can do that just for your mind it's a really vivid experience that it's gonna translate into real world experience that's my brother was saying like if you can't separate the two with it I mean think sometimes my brother would tell me the story and I think it was me I'm telling people this story what I'm most telling him yo that's me and you know I was Marta was saying was you know that I think it's there's a level of accountability that we take for for as what can we do with the tools we have right like you ever seen I saw a video a guy like once say he was born with no arms or he lost an axe and I can't remember but he wanted to learn the violin he learn to play the violin with his feet Wow you know one of those things were like you can make excuses but when you want something you make it work and you know I think those are always the people that figure out a way of being excellent at something is that they work with what they have because the truth of the matter is you're always gonna have some kind of like there's always gonna be a hurt there's always gonna be an obstacle but now that you can go to the gym that's a huge obstacle but what else that we can do that we are not doing what one thing I always ask my students right like before and after it's hard I'm constantly asking this question asking this are you doing on a stir honestly are you doing 100% of what you could be doing to maximize your performance and the answer is always no there's always something else you could be doing right and this isn't time to reflect on what those things are yeah you can't go to the gym that is crucial but what else can we do and have you read art of war no you haven't what's the must read for any martial artists have you do you visualize have you studied your opponent's do you know your bracket inside out right you know the rules you competed inside of ask-ask IBJJF competitors how many times they went on the IDF's website and read the rules from beginning to end and you be surprised at the response from my experience like 99% of people they've never even like thought about going on the website and read the rules before I remember in football professional football NFL these guys are being paid millions of dollars and they don't know the rules I mean remember back in the day when a guy who had think the play was dead and the place not dead he takes off you know like like singing instances where they didn't quite know all the rules and it's what they really do for living and in there at the top level so what you bring up is brilliant you know I bet you those guys that don't know all the rules competing and they should they should know every rule why not well especially now right now what else we got to do and and and there is a lot of sports psychology books out there that doesn't hurt to get into them doesn't hurt you know if you can pick up one concept one visualization concept that's gonna help you out one thing that will calm you down or give you more confidence you know now's the time to dig into those things and it's it's any I think I need any high level black belt will tell you that the biggest difference between a brown bow and a black bow is right up here you know brown bone black ball they pretty much know the same technique at this point I mean they a brown bow could be in the game eight years nine years ten years the big thing that kind of makes them to take that jump that leap of faith is it's what I up here and there's there's you know that's something you can always be worked on could always be worked on you know yeah yeah it's always room for improvement when it comes to the - them it's the key elements the most important element is it all steps go on a tweet yeah I think a lot of people shy away from it just because it's difficult it is not really well studied like normally instructors at you know Joe Schmo Jim doesn't tell you how to train your mind right and most people are only getting the type of mental training that comes like second hand right like people get this is second hand and martial artists because they're just always showing up and then you're exercising discipline you know without being force-fed it but I think the truly exceptional coaches are gonna try to run their students and teach them okay this is visualization this is why I'm sporting or you know this is why you know you need to be able to use what we call the morphism you know the little strategies or whatnot and actually walk people through them or at least provide them with the materials that they can read something that they can capture on their own but am nowadays especially in this generation nobody likes to read you know what I call reading reading is like ok you we don't I'd like to eat broccoli and kale right but it's good for you we win McDonald's McDonald's the equipment of entertainment McDonald's is like like television and Netflix and TV's here that's McDonald's you want you want food for your soul man you need a good book and in broccoli it's like a good book it may not taste delicious at first but once you get used to it that's all you want to eat like you know I'm saying like I prefer the company of a good book than I do like almost every TV show out there you said I'm saying because I'm used to that and that's one thing that martial artists need to learn is that martial arts is a mental game and you train your mind not by just training your body you train your mind by actually exercising thought like your mind should be constantly working out and you do that through self-reflection and a book opens a lot of those doors those doors that you didn't even know existed and like okay how can I think of this how can I think of myself how can I think of from everything from physiology to psychology to philosophy these things all open doors for your own mind that people aren't always aware that even exists right so these things got to be exercised but martial artists just don't think of it if you know if I'm in shape that's all that matters I just got to know this new sweet but I'm good to go and there's so much more to it and right now is a good time while I'm us on social things to buy the things you're gonna help you train your home you know like you'll have it if you're into MMA or kickboxing having a heavy bag in your home you know even even one of those centuries standing bags you know the onesie the bass full of water anything's better than nothing and you know fortunately you know my home I got my math setup you know my dollar murders that roll up you know they're light I mean if you have the budget for that to get a set of match for your for your house we're take a garage or even though you know just well you have to you know one of the biggest things for me and Dave coming up he'll tell you we were in high school we had a room in our garage we had like a 12 by 12 breast in math and man we got mileage out of that Matt and you know me it almost made me cry when we saw the date I remember the guy who bought it and everything Chris Lemos and we got a lot of mileage you know who'd wrestle wrestle wrestle wrestle and that's another thing too you don't got another partner that's a high level belt that you can wrestle with that's a challenge to you assuming that you know you're you're blue bell pepper bow-bow-bow drilling you just need a body to drill with you know if I have a buddy in this case I use my wife to drill takedowns my need to you know I mean so like you've got a buddy a neighbor it could just be a body for you to just do a hundred repetitions of your favorite takedown on boom yes I don't care who you are 100 petitions is tough yeah you're doing it full intensity you know all it's the ground thanks that's a full for most people you're done and and it's also psychological training cuz we hit like through 30 years of 40th Rev you start thinking like damn I may be able to make this thing you know and you just gotta keep pushing pushing pushing pushing and and you don't need like a lot for that I just need another body you know unfortunately if you have nobody here to hermit yeah friends come out every was afraid of your confidence these things you have Corona it's a little tougher but hey you don't make it happen you know we're not I was preparing for a TCC my first run I was training by myself for the most part I don't even marry guys at that time I was working at the nuclear power plant and I think I was getting up by the time most of that classes are already finishing so I would go to FFA by myself and there was nobody there and I would do an hour long shadow routine which consisted of rounds I was I think 15 rounds of three minutes each with one minute in between and it would be like shadow shots for one three-minute straight then it would be sprawl spinning behind for three minutes training then it would go into me cuts you know just sliding across the mat duck walks you know and it was just full 50 minutes going through that and uh I mean 15 rounds and it was really tiring again I finally to see I mean I didn't win it but I [ __ ] they me my doctor day and I think gasps yeah I have the cardio well there's a will there's a way you know and yeah we want something like we'll find reasons is the thing like a hurdles not a hurdle when you want something like it's just something there you just happen you just find a way around it I think that a lot of a lot of times people are the impression they want something and you know the second there's a price to pay they like they start questioning what they want or they oh that's why I can't do it because there's a price right whereas when you want something man like yo dude I'm seeing I've seen people like you look I've seen I remember like there's one year like 2005 a thing like me oh one eighties you see and had a broken foot you know and he was I trained like the way he could like you can do couldn't do much with a broken foot but you know like there's always when you want something man like you you'll find reasons to succeed not reasons to not succeed right so it really did the cliche I think it's so true that's a great point a lot of people with like things and it confuse that with wanting things yeah I I would like a boat but do I really want a boat no I mean there's guys out there that all day long they're looking Craigslist for like a banged up boat so they could fix it they look up ways to fix it and save money and there's guys I have a little jars all about their bow you know I suppose you know why every kind of boat me like there's guys up one a bow I I would like one of you gave it to me yeah sure I'll take it and I think a lot to do confuse what like with one there's a lot of people that would like to win a tournament get first place and get the gold medal there's people that want that gold medal all day they're thinking about that gold medal and like you know they're just marching towards that goal and yes I think what you brought up is true you know a people on Dan Kennedy he's a business motivational speaker he said that people on average prefer good excuses over good results yeah if you think about it if you take an average of all the excuses used allowed them the would a good resort possible but just worth taking so much more work to get so here comes a comfort you had a good excuse like for example why'd you stop training okay I got quarantined it's like a relief in a way like IRA quarantine what could I do I mean the reality is you can still train if you're serious about getting your next Bell you're serious about getting you in that tournament this is calm I mean if you're a true competitor it's kind of a golden opportunity because like I used to when I used to compete I just love the holidays like New Year's Eve Christmas Day because in my mind I trained I can am all those things and in my mind odds are like if you look on YouTube you know I got videos of me doing this for years or on the ball would drop I would hit the roads are running low Mike well my guys because my mentality was at that moment all my competitors are drinking or kissing a girl friends so at that exact moment I'm training and they're not your enemy so like to me this looks like one of those kind of situations for a true competitor or right now your competitors might be you know just getting fat and snacks like is the time that you can if you put that you know extra creativity an extra drive motivation sort of shot boxes and shadow shots have to put the bed up against long sorry dude shots into the bed you know like like anything you can do to train while your opponents are not it's a game you know I mean and and you know they can't get it back if you keep running I just fear that people are gonna use this time not to actually do everything where it solid I'm gonna do and they're just gonna spend a shitload of time on social media Netflix that's that's parody I lifted my in my garage actually filmed it on Facebook took me 2 hours and 40 minutes to finish my weight training routine but I did it live but I think it's human nature to want the good excuses I don't think it's a knock on people I just think it's human nature like like we've all been there but we have that golden parachute of an excuse to use you know to teach her oh listen you know I got this document here I had this thing I couldn't do it you know my car broke down I couldn't do it you know like is it almost I can relate to it that it's just innate in us and we got pushed past that you know like like nowadays I'll get people that would call in and can't come to work and see all my car would start like Walter's uber like there was a solution ya know like it was a solution ideal and now it's extra money at the spend again here but there was a solution so a lot of times there's a solution to the issue but it's more work or more cost and people will fall back to the excuse and if we can just like you said look for look for all the releases to succeed in a ways to succeed and not look at the obstacles that's the way to go yeah I think you touching on a point there too which is we talk about work or like or school most people don't want to do these things right so the excuse is they're giving them carte blanche they're like oh I feed myself with the responsibility without looking bad you know I mean but what what they really wanted to do they got because I think at the end of the day most people get what they really want I think problem is most people don't know what they really want they've never had that deep discussion with them scouts to find out what they believe their true purpose in life is or what the true motivations are yeah and they make excuses and these excuses of except consciously getting them to where they want to be you know if someone doesn't want to work that means they want to be a home and be a slob out there and like some people like oh I get to play video games all day long now it's like well I mean you could do that whenever you want to technically you won't be able to do it for long once the bills get shoved off you know but sort of one you could you know I think I forgot which was an office space where the main character the guy asked him hey what would you do we had a million dollars just nothing absolutely nothing I think I say well hello Peter you could do that right now people on the street I got a friend of mine in Brazil he's like the laziest person I know and he's always like making fun of everyone for working you know and then we got this their friend who's like a grinder he works two jobs kills himself got a fella he's got like but he just got nothing to show for he's been doing his whole life but he just never you know made any money he just works a lot so they're always arguing with each other which philosophy was better and then like the guy who lazy doesn't work like looking [ __ ] like I don't work I have nothing you also and it's obviously know what I'm not recommending anyone do that but I think there's some with swears by his Kakuta Matata like that's his philosophy like no words no responsibilities I don't care you know the thing is like he's so charismatic and funny that whatever we go out everyone is up buying him there because he's like always funniest guy to hang out with so that he gets away with it with his charisma but it's it's true true story actually sorry I'm laying down by the my neck is killing me like I got a herniated disc that's flared up so like I can't sit up for very long without beating pain so that's why it's cool it's cool yeah not be I'm not being it so looks like I'm being lazy but I got a I should get like a minor surgery on my neck April 2nd for uh well yeah it to fix it because what what's done here is surgery I mean is a surgical procedure we're getting inject my spine with cortisone not on the muscle and the actual nerve I did look in a stem so David it was just like way too expensive and right now with everything going on I'm like I'm saving where I can my insurance is covering the the cortisone shots so I'm going that route but I do recognize that a little cortisone for the record yeah you gotta do what you gotta do yeah I mean it's only the second one I'm like 38 it's only the second shot on my neck so I should be able to get another 10 before it starts doing any real damage I had a student once break her neck clean and was one of the worst experience that had been through as a coach not one of the worst it was the worst experience it went through the coach and shots you got suplex and broke her neck when she land the ground robbed the first thing she did when she woke up well she looked at me and said I can't cuz when she got knocked out I remember think he just please wake up please wake up please wake up and when she woke up I was like please move and the first thing she goes I can't move I was like Jesus Christ and and then she told me if you tell me I can walk about walking again I'll believe you and at this point Rob I didn't know if she could walk or not and if I had to be honest I was leaning more on the side of no I think it's like the way it looked in the way she fell and I looked her in the eye and I told her what I thought she needed to hear which was you're gonna be just fine you know and when they picked her up I know it's a weird segue but you brought the neck thing and just got me thinking about this and would tell my excuses and stuff and anything is a good story so when they picked when they picked her up I told her because I saw the guys looking each other cuz they did a test on her foot and she was having no reaction they give that look teacher like she's done you know and I told her like hey Yahaira when they take you in there the doctors are all gonna tell you can't walk again ignore them all they're just that's what they do okay you're gonna walk you're gonna walk and when they took it to the hospital at first any toys that she would never walk again and I was like Jesus Christ and then I sucked at she asked to see me for the surgery and she looked at me and said am I gonna walk and I said you're gonna walk and all she could do with all her effort was move her big one big toe like this whoo just a little tiny movement and her mom was praying hallelujah and stuff I remember that and the doctor goes oh it's good news you know that means in about a year she might be able to walk with with crutches like for us for life listen I'm not I'm telling you the dead [ __ ] truth it was maybe two months later in rehab she was shadowboxing Wow no she took no painkillers nothing since then she's done about six amateur MMA fights she's done two pro MMA fights and she was set to do her pro boxing debut now but that whole thing got cancelled through this thing and it was impressive like like I'm telling you like like shadow boxing like up on her feet she didn't take one painkiller I couldn't believe it so like she had every reason to be like hey I'm done but she was so determined to fight us all she want to do back then she hadn't fought yet you know her goal was to fight and she stuck with it everyone told it was a bad idea she got a plate two rods her neck but she all she needed to know that there was someone out there I did it and she saw that Tito Ortiz had a plate in his neck Pat Miletich she saw that that book now it's a movie but that book with Vinny Pazienza I think it's called fight to live and it's a true story about when Vinny Pazienza broke his neck and then like defending his title I can think was a Glenn once later like that he was training with a halo on and stuff if you haven't read that book or seen that movie the movies pretty good and if you're going through an injury and you're bummed out like thinking that this injury has ended you watch that story it's really good what's it called again I think it's called fight to live it's I think that's legal beanie baby past the answer story it'll come up and I think that's a good thing to mention their bars because we had quite a few guys have suffered some traumatic injuries that for most people would be game over and those turned out to be some of our greatest success stories like Jason Suarez is probably the one that comes to my mind right away who got into a motorcycle accident you know and they had to airlifted to the hospital they try he was gonna die he said he survived then they thought he wouldn't ever walk again and he was a three months later and he was grappling you know but they both had something in common which is they had full belief in themselves that they would come back and they did everything possible to make that happen like I remember with Jason he would come in on the wheelchair once they released the hospital to the gym and he would hit the bag from the wheelchair and he was in a walker and I have it on video yeah a walker one cropped a new walker and the other hand hinted by like this like super weak like a nine-year-old hitting a bag and back then he had never done him and made like not one fight yet Blue Bell yeah yeah and I remember feeling bad for him because the doctor told me like he'll never fighting he'll never be able to fight in a train and Jason was so determined so I just told me they look man um you know you can work at the gym I start gave him a job the gym just out of pity like thinking like this will help them you know stay in them mentally in this but he was determined and I remember was a year later he did his first crap in front man you got first place in advanced division and I looked at him I said I'll never bring up the injury ever again cuz I used to always ask me okay are you okay are you okay because he was suffering in the beginning he was getting mini-strokes in the middle of training I remember we went to Cuba to box he came along this was like maybe three and a half months four months after his accident and I told look you can come but no sparring no like you know getting hit you just gonna like do technique it's a map and while we were over there you know it's medicines very cheap everything's very cheap in Cuba unfortunately like you know a doctor gets paid like $15 a month so Jason was like hey you know while I'm here let me get some extra battery of blood tests so we get the battery of blood tests and the guy comes back and goes who do these results belong like whose blood sample do we just take like that guy and he looks at him and he goes like I have no idea how that guy's walking around like what and he goes based on these blood tests like results like this guys shouldn't be walking around she'd be like bedridden I don't know how he's doing this and he was trained in boxing and breaking a sweat and like doing kind of stuff now I'm not I'm not telling people that are in a serious condition to get up and do things like that I'm not a doctor I would recommend anything like that I'm just bringing up the point about how this guy which me at the point about this guy was told that he wouldn't be able to do stuff he didn't let it distract him from his goals and he found a way to make it happen right now he's 14 and Oh with 12 submissions he's won my he's D top right so I have and he's fighting Lance Palmer well hopefully I don't know what's going on in the zombies start walking around they might cancel the fight but spook by Lance Palmer in the PFL opening season match as main event Lance pomegranate familiar he's a two-time pfl 145 pound champ it's won a million dollars both x and this x mean jason turn to get the million and that's his first fight so it's gonna be it's gonna be some fireworks but it all started from someone telling him hey you're done and I don't know the do disagree with me Rob I know that you probably agree because right now you're injured but I don't know one black belt that hasn't had some kind of I don't want to say serious injury but an injury that would sideline most people like something that's at least a six-month injury oh I'll be honest with you like this same injury 15 years ago 12 years ago it would have not has stopped me in a million years like there's nothing you know I'm saying like I would have pushed through it I would had ignored it but there was a purpose to that like there was an objective like I had in my head I wanted to be the best in the world I don't have that goal anymore the odds of me - feeding Bouchet tomorrow are like like one in a million and I'm aware of this I'm realistic about it I'm not as active as I used to be I'm all beat up I'm not as sharp as I used to be you know so these things change with time and I'm aware of these things and you just got to be honest about I'm not gonna [ __ ] people and say yeah yeah I could hang if I wanted to yeah I have no issues being honest about the fact that my heart no longer aspires to be the best in the world right I have different aspirations now I have different goals that is a different phase of my life but I think that when you have that goal yes like this neck would have not I stopped and just like it didn't stop your student from from hitting too bad with with one arm you know but you know what I'm gonna priorities change these things changed and now it's like to go through that pain just to what to be in shape be in shape for what you know I'm saying that's why I never understood for no reason they just draw really what it means but it means you definitely got to your goal black oh yeah yeah I'm saying no I understand yeah yeah so like it's like a lot of people they get like a knee knee injury or you know or even a neck injury or an arm injury and it's sidelines them for four or five months and they get derailed off their goal you know and my point is that like all of us at some point gets some kind of obstacle the road to black box never like a straight line you know people think of like like white blue purple brown black reality it's like those circles you know you go you go four steps forward five steps back like in many ways is as gym owners this is one of those moments you don't say and I think you're gonna see it could be wrong but I think you to see that the the more seasoned black belts are gonna do a lot better than the purple belts and brown belts have schools and I think it's because we've been to these grinds we we've been like not the coronavirus but we've been through all kinds of user Jake you don't need your neck needs to be your second cortisone shot and stuff like man to some people they hear that and that's like you know yeah yeah because you've been through it you know confidence only comes the accomplishment in other words you can't be truly confident in something you know without having like right now we were to talk about skydiving and I can give you a million lessons on skydiving but until you jump out of a plane and actually see your parachute open up a few times you're not gonna be truly confident in it you didn't be worried a little bit yeah the guys that have a gazillion jumps on their belt to them it's a big joke jumping out of a plane right and uh and I think that that as black belts season competitors we've been through a lot of setbacks and I've conquered them or persevered despite of them so now things like this happen and yeah man like I say that's not not sweating it but then I feel I almost feel like I've been here done that even though I haven't that makes any sense no but you feel there's a sense of satisfaction there's no longer the eye I know you talk abouts like the pressure is no longer there where's before I felt pressure you may not feel pressure now right because your priority have the priority to have like a new students or you know or growing your business or expanding your family whatever you're probably the people you know change but like injury is one of those things where like you're right like I can laugh at a neck injury now like I'm serious like I don't take him I mean there's some intake some serious stuff out there but like to me of course I'm shot in the neck it's another day in the office right we're there for most people that would be but that came through because you know dealt with so much over overtime yeah yeah I bet cuz to me it sounds scary it's probably one of the best benefits for people to compete in the martial arts it's not that they need to win the medal or whatnot it's just the experience of going through those hardships because yes I feel it's a great analog for the rest of life like I remember before my brother and I started wrestling in high school me and there done that an honest day's work in life you know me as far as like struggling like real struggle we would struggle to run the three mile and even run in the beginning of practice and I murder one day I think I was like couple days into the practice you know and coach Piersol balls about here so I went up to like a coach my legs are really sore can I take a break and then he goes hey David you know why you're sore because you've never worked out in your life and you play most video games all day long you know Kay so you don't really know what it means it's a struggle but go ahead go take a break and I was like yeah like 30 seconds it was she was totally right it was a hundred percent true it's like if if you would have let me off the hook and let me break it would have been like a very weak point you know because then I would be making that excuse all the time because it worked and is a thing and this is a thing the physical body this is my opinion the physical body conditioning wise will fade you know if you just say in the couch all day it'll fade at a decent rate but mental toughness granted when you're actively grinding and pushing yourself mentally you are sharper tough wise but for the most part that doesn't go away so like a guy who was a Navy SEAL is always a Navy SEAL you know a guy who was an all-american wrestler he's always an all-american wrestler so like so like you find like some some old timer and you know the guy used to be wha-at all-american or some like that and you took a challenge him to go for a jog or something he's gonna push himself a level that you're not ready to see but like back then my brother and I we could barely run a quarter mile without stopping and I'm gonna tell you right now that there's no way that we were in that bad of shape physically it just mentally we were so weak like right I recently lost thirty pounds so I feel like I can't use myself as an example anymore but before but before I lost 130 pounds and I was and I was overweight and done exercising quite some time I can tell you right now I was in terrible physical shape all right and in that bad of a shape if you put me in the spot and challenged me to go for a run or challenged me to a sparring match it's not that I was gonna do great like you know old competition Marcos but I out gassed a lot of people that were in far superior shape based purely on pure drive ahead of my mind because I've been there I'd strengthened my mind whereas before when I was 17 18 out to start up with a kid man I would cardio top like for anything you know like it was ridiculous and a lot of people are also on that baby phase of their mind you're not going to be an uncomfortable right like they are not like when you're used to being uncomfortable uncomfort is not like you put you push the threshold of uncomfort so much that that never goes away I agree like I think mentally I've never been tougher even though I've hacked I haven't had a hard hard workout in a long time this it's where I push myself to my limits in a long time but mentally I know that I could do it if I have to and that there's no question about it yes I think that's where it's some people like that's the disconnect right between someone who's never really pushed himself hard and they seem like you're delusional like how do you think you can do all this but you know people who have done it like guys we know like because we've been there you know like at the drop of a diamond if something's going down like I'm ready I was sitting at 2:15 for how many years Dave like four or five years straight yeah you were begging a brother for two months I lost all the way and I've kept it off like half a year so far hopefully it stays that way right and and the main motivation was was it that got me doing it some of me some kind of fat comment to me and it was like a switch that turned on and I didn't have any doubt in my mind that I would I would lose all the way just because of what you guys are looted - I've done it before I've done it before you know like like and it doesn't go away I really don't think that kind of toughness goes away and I think to me that's the greatest gift that the martial arts ever gave me because tomorrow I might never train a day again and rest of my life but the less the mental fortitude I got from that is what takes me everywhere look as a as a dad I work as hard as I can and I should be dad so again that grind as a husband I try to work as hard as I can and began far that grind and then like right now this virus wrong filming these online videos all day I'm juggling everything and half of my kids are there online training with their school stuff and it's all because of that like wrestler grind I got from that that's why that's why I made my my my wrestling coach from high school he's the Godfather one of my kids that's why you know I still can't do them he still at my gym teaching at our place because I've always put that gratitude for for what that wrestling started and wrestling in martial arts you know during a competitive environment it's the same thing it's the same kind of lessons you're learning wrestled a little known they had the reputation for being super tough but the reality is that many martial arts schools teach with the same style grinded and that's the best thing you can get man if you get that mental fortitude it's because they push you to the brink of collapse every day and anyone who does that where are this the military or martial arts or you know wrestling what were ever you have that push there's only one way to survive and that shark tank and that's to be tough right and you know I wasn't a tough child I was not not tough at all as a kid but I was willing to step in a cage and fight you know I was you know saying like I done conditioning rounds to the point where I couldn't stand up I was so tired like I've been through these things but they made me stronger right in and this that you're right like that is the greatest gift is not to bail the trophy it's it's the mental toughness that comes with the training the hard training right because just recreational training doesn't necessarily do that immediately it's you need that that that hard push from where I could sustained period for you to really get the benefits I feel like yeah I feel like they're just echoing that sentiment when well I was in high school I wasn't a great student and got through wrestling when I got to college I graduated top of my class and the the reason I was able to do that was because I had that mentality from wrestling and I thought like the physical work to me is much more scary and much more difficult than hitting the books you know that's a I'm not gonna let some other kid who's never wrestled these before outwork me you know I mean like I could study them and at the time my brother and I we were I guess 18 we had in the gym open in the same location right now at FIU and we were competing doing all that once while taking 15 credits and we would just study cram do whatever we had to do to win while everybody else was partying or having a good time you know just like you do wait it's gotta get done all right so I got a study and to me my goal was always to be the number one guy every class to score the highest I remember I would go to the teacher on one of the I was I think it was like calculus 3 or whatnot I had scored a 105 but on the bonus they made a mistake and he gave me 100 and I went to complain of my hate you missed this I got this right I motherly cuz I won't tell are you doing that so I think that would that that's that work ethic that toughness it translates all areas of life and if you've never like you said Rob I never pushed yourself and to be uncomfortable you would have been like me telling coach hey my legs hurt let me take a break and you would be weak yeah but the good news is contrary to a lot of people say I hate that specially oh you know you're a born a fighter or you know they it's exciting that's like a genetic trait to me it's BS toughness is made and it's made by putting people in tough situations and I'm surviving you can make the argument that only certain people survive ok whatever but if you don't put yourself in tough situations you will never know if you're capable of surviving and I mean so you're shying away from it for the beginning you never have a chance you know so I feel like I mean that in your back pocket this is such a powerful tool and I feel that's why they anybody you train in martial arts or wrestling or football whatever you do please compete once just to get that thrill because I feel like extinguishes a lot of fears like I think they say the most common fear people have is public speaking you know well you think speaking is to imagine fighting in front of a crowd I'll tell you this I'll tell you this I'd read a hundred percent that look I I nowadays yes I train fighters but the vast majority of my stew once a 90 over 95 percent of my students are recreational trained training people like they're just doing this for the health benefits and for self-defense so like my a big part of my focus is in self-defense and on that aspect but that being said I think everybody if I had a choice should do at least one bare minimum a grappling tournament because um the adrenaline you get is that something that you can truly replicate in a gym and that will make your training better because now even if you never compete again you know what the thresholds wouldn't feel like when the adrenaline spikes in there and a grappling tournament match it's not the same hope adrenaline as an MMA fight I can tell you that but you now understand the taste there's a similar taste to it and and for you know a lot of things we're talking about right now is hardcore in a sense is like what about hardcore competition stuff but for the recreational and self-defense a person listening right now the best way you can help build your mental strength without having to be like trained till you puke right now that just a way of kind of you know jogging your way up your mental strength is to never cardio tap so like I don't know if that's a mainstream term or not but basically like cardio tapping is when you're rolling with somebody and you're having a tough role and I just passed your guard bounce you the amounts you just tabulate okay okay that's enough all right so to me for me one of my criteria to promote you from white belt to Blue Bell is that you can never cardio tap like if we see you Carter tap I can't promote you it's just something I don't do and and the reason because what that tap is it's it's it's not that you're tired you are tired let me wrong but you didn't do that tap when he would you were on top of him or when he was in your guard you did it when he mounted you I got SCI control because in a way you want to get tapped out and you think there's somehow like more honor like and just getting tapping like saying I'm too tired versus him tapping you out and the reality is a lot more honor and he arm locking you then you just given up cuz when you gave up that was all you yeah there's no but when he Garlock to you he had a part of the equation right straight whether you didn't like fighting hard enough doesn't matter if he didn't armlock you there was no tap but when you cardio tap that's all on you so when I and why do people do it because they don't want to get tapped at this they they don't want to feel that this guy beat them so you didn't beat me I stopped early except too tired and too tired against an excuse so the better thing to do is if you're totally tired where you're about to cardio tap I'm gonna tap you out and what you're gonna find out is that when he goes to a submission this would be so much pride involved you'd be like no like let's say ten more seconds congratulations because you just push yourself 10 seconds pass a threshold that you thought was your limit you thought that this was your limit you're about to carry on top and you end up fighting for 10 more seconds and you keep doing that and you keep adding 10 more seconds ten more seconds ten more seconds ten more seconds and now you're developing genuine toughness but the credit tapping thing don't do it just let if you're better do it let them talk to you and you can see that you it's gonna make you push harder and the reality is this its battle this is not my quote this is a quote from the ancient Greek soldier Archaea loaches in battle you never rise to the occasion you always fall back to your level of training so like in your imagination you think you do this you do that you're gonna do this in a fight if you ain't doing it in training it couldn't happen like that so so what's gonna happen is if you used to tap now on times are tough in a real fight you can be looking for that car to tap and guess what that kurtik tap ain't gonna exist in a street fight and in grenade well a competition fight will exist but it's not a desired result but in a street fight it will not exist so eliminate that from your option choices to cardio tap select like if the only thing you got from Mike from this talk is is is that one point and your cardio tapper right now man you walked away with a tremendous value because if you can eliminate or drastically reduce that cardio top just eliminate it it's not eat it this is an attitude thing there's not a technique thing this is not a cardio thing there's an attitude thing just do not tap out for no reason let them submit you don't tap out for no reason you can activate this tomorrow and this will make a big difference in your game I always refer to that is like the biggest lie ever told that biggest lie any fighter whatever tell himself is that when I compete it will be different right yeah you're exactly right in the sense that you were you will react exactly the way you are used to reacting and from comedy training because training is reinforced in a habit and when you're gassed out rocked from a punch or just mentally breaking you're gonna go back to your default set and if that default setting is quitting you're gonna quit in the fight and just that do you have to trick you have to prepare yourself in practice to perform the way you expect to perform guys really quick I gotta go now I gotta give my kids a bath I know that I can keep doing this with you guys for another hour but that Duty is calling and I gotta go it's uh but it's a it's time for dad to go but I it was a pleasure Marcus thank you so much for being on the show my pleasure Rob thanks for having me on and man I wish you best your neck I hope you think it's a full recovery there I'll be fine I'll survive this happened before so I'll be okay and yeah let's get you on the show again sometime soon you know I'm good yeah and I'll give my brother a plug it's just too modest you can check my brother out on Marcos Avalon calm and I'll put a link in there and he also has his own course on martial arts of psychology which is black belt psychology comm which I highly recommend to people as well it covers a lot of the concepts that we're as they're talking about here so make sure to check it out and again thanks for everybody be safe [Music]